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Bradford Close

“We loosed from Plymouth, having been kindly entertained and courteously used by divers friends there living,” so wrote, apparently, William Bradford the man who in 1621, aged 31, following the death of John Caver, was elected Governor of the settlement founded by the Pilgrim Fathers. Bradford was one of that famous band of Pilgrim Fathers who had put into Plymouth when problems had arisen with the Speedwell, the ship that had originally set out from Southampton with the Mayflower.

On becoming Governor he oversaw the development of the community that America would come to regard as its fundamental family tree. 1620 had been an eventful year for Bradford, having crossed the Atlantic successfully with his fellow travellers, he had to bear the tragic loss of his wife who drowned in Cape Cod on 7th December less than a month after their arrival there. However Bradford married a second time and served as Governor of the new colony for all but five of his remaining 36 years.

Bradford Close, a relatively modern development, sits between the Parkway and the thematically linked Speedwell Crescent.